A sneaky tactic from the recent Youth Winter Olympic Games has gone viral, with a Chinese speed skater’s brilliant move stunning fans.
Yang Jingru claimed gold in the women’s 1500-metre short-track speed-skating final at the Gangwon, South Korea Games ahead of her compatriot Li Jinzi.
But that doesn’t explain just how well she outsmarted the competition.
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The race, running 13 and a half laps, usually starts very slowly until the skaters pick up the pace with approximately a third of the race left – because it’s simply too long a distance to sprint the entire time.
But Yang made the bold call to race away from the pack immediately, and with nobody willing to follow, she completed an entire lap to catch up to the field where she then hung behind.
Seemingly unaware they were down a lap to the race leader, or accepting gold was out of reach, the competitors then continued on normally until they picked up the pace with a few laps remaining.
But they had certainly forgotten Yang’s move by the time the bell rang for the final lap – a bell which signified she was on the final lap, but being a lap down, everyone else still had two to go.
A group of skaters madly dashed over the line, using every bit of their energy, but Yang’s compatriot Li continued skating with the knowledge she had to complete one more lap, and went on to claim silver.
While the race happened in mid-January, a video recapping what happened from Tiktok user schmittly has made sports fans who understandably weren’t watching the Youth Winter Olympics aware of the incident.
“It was a daring move, one I had never attempted before,” Yang said post-race according to CGTN.
“But it was my own strategy, a secret weapon nobody saw coming. It left everyone bewildered and unsure of how to respond.
“And it worked like a charm… I achieved what I had set out to do. My goal was to claim the gold medal, and I’m pleased that I was able to turn that vision into a reality.”
American blog SB Nation quipped the move was “the most genius trick the Olympics have ever seen”.
Steven Bradbury may beg to differ.
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